Urban Horror

Jinx Hamilton is ready to trade in waitressing for becoming her own boss. The shop she inherits from her eccentric aunt in Briar Hollow, North Carolina, seems like the perfect fit. As Jinx handles the enchanted inventory and the unruly clientele, she discovers her aunt also willed her magical powers without an instruction manual! As if that weren’t enough, she’s forced to deal with four cats, several homeless ghosts, and a potential serial killer.

Zoe Lake is heading off to college - and she's excited. It's not a regular college, though. It's a magical college full of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, sphinxes - and pretty much everything else you can imagine. Despite the monsters, it's often human nature that threatens her life most.

And the dead shall rise... Two hellish years. That's how long it's been since the hurricanes flooded the Gulf Coast, and the dead rose up from the ruins. The cities were quarantined; the infected, contained. Any unlucky survivors were left to fend for themselves. A feast for the dead. And the living shall gather... One boatload of refugees manages to make it out alive - but one passenger carries the virus. Within weeks, the zombie epidemic spreads across the globe.

Wynn Hygeort is stunned when Magiere and Leesil, along with the elven wolf Chap, show up at the Guild of Sagecraft. But Wynn cannot leave with her friends - she still must access the texts within the Guild’s archives, which may help her divine the locations of the last two Orbs sought by the Ancient Enemy. To complete her task - and protect the Orbs - Wynn must remain sequestered from her friends. But she’s essentially a prisoner.

Little Mia Cooper's ability to see the dead made her an outcast in her hometown. Several years later, she has finally managed to blend in, but her hard-won peace is threatened by the arrival of a bumbling team of paranormal investigators. Mia is drawn in reluctantly as an advisor on what, at first, seems to be a fairly straightforward case, only to discover that the Hollow has much more in store for her. An ancient evil is rising in Cold Creek Hollow. What begins as a ghost hunt will become a fight for survival.

As Shadow and Gabe become more involved with The Orphic Guild, they find out that the occult world is full of intrigue and far more complicated than they realised. Especially when it seems that someone wants the same thing that they do - The Trinity of the Seeker. Cause for concern? Absolutely not. If anything, Shadow is more committed than ever, and relishes pitting her wits against an unpredictable enemy.

There’s something in Gary’s house that doesn’t want him there. Ever since his marriage fell apart, he’s been seeing things, things that everyone keeps on telling him aren’t there. But Gary’s not just seeing things, and soon it’s more than his peace of mind that’s at stake - it’s his life.

My name’s Bill Ryder and five years ago I saved the world, banishing magic and monsters to the shadows. Not bad for a game programmer from New York. Anyway, I thought it was over, that I was done with all that supernatural crap. Too bad shit's about to get surreal again. Now the impossible has happened. My goddaughter is conjuring fireballs from thin air and two vampires have shown up at my doorstep looking to kick my ass.

Nikolai is a dragon shapeshifter who knows well the meaning of loss. Orphaned and raised to be a Dragon King, he never accepts defeat. Now, Nikolai prefers his solitude...until a beautiful, irresistible woman calls upon him for help - and Nikolai's whole world goes up in flames. Ever since MI5 agent Esther woke to discover her mind taken over with magic, she feels like a stranger to herself. She looks to a notorious dragon, one who has the power to help her find her memory. But as she and Nikolai come closer to discovering what really happened to her, a dangerous passion ignites between them.

In The Killing Dance, vampire hunter Anita Blake finds herself the victim when a $500,000 price is put on her head, and the two men in her life - a vampire and a werewolf-aren't helping the situation.

Wellman’s work will be remembered, and should be preserved because it combines the dark gothic tradition of the American pulps with a detailed snapshot of regional history and culture. This mixture is shown through the lens of the American modernist tradition, revealing something that is larger than the sum of its parts.

A sensitive and two ghost hunters walk into a bar. The barman is silent and the barflies long dead. It sounds like the start of a joke, but it's not. An active haunt in a derelict biker bar on Route 66 is a dream come true for the PEEPs team, until it turns violent. Join Mia Cooper and the PEEPs team on an adventure from the cultural confines of Chicago's Field Museum down Route 66 to Lucky's Bar, where evil is always on tap.

It isn't the chair rocking by itself that sends the young family fleeing in the middle of the night. It's when it stops rocking and all hell breaks loose. This family needs help. Enter PEEPs (Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners), armed with the latest hi-tech gear and the ghost communication abilities of Mia Cooper. But this isn't a normal case. Some of the ghosts aren't playing fair. Some of them are armed.

In a London funeral parlor, the dead rise and walk again. On a train in the London Underground, a young couple is terrorized by a demon. In a suburb, a poltergeist forces a family to flee their home. Hellboy has his hands full. While the supernatural is on a rampage in London, a series of brutal Torso Murders turns up at various sites around the city. All of the corpses are headless, limbless, and drained of their blood.

In back alleys and hellholes across the world, ravaged souls and scarred warriors whisper of the Iron Tournament. A savage game of death, pitting living fighters against caged spirits, all for the amusement of a mysterious audience.

Gabriel Delling might call himself a professional con artist, but when walking superstitions start trying to bite his face off, his charm is shockingly unhelpful. It turns out living nightmares almost never appreciate a good joke. Together with a succubus who insists on constantly saving his life, Gabe desperately tries to survive a new reality that suddenly features demons, legends, and a giant locust named Dale - all of whom pretty much hate his guts. And when an ancient horror comes hunting for a spirit locked in his head, Gabe finds himself faced with the excruciating choice between death...or becoming some kind of freaking hero.

Called to investigate a mystery at a local gypsum mine, paranormal detective Tempest Michaels expects to find a rational explanation for the strange events.... Instead, he discovers a body and a horrified staff. Recent earthworks exposed something ancient, twisted, and above all evil. It has claimed one life already, and the staff is terrified for who might be next.

When Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny are asked to escort a VIP on the late-night train to Bath, it would appear to be a routine case. The Organisation has acquired intelligence that an attempt is to be made on Sir Dennis Gregson’s life as he travels to Bath to take up his new position as Head of the British Psychic Weapons Division. Ishmael’s mission is to ensure that Sir Dennis arrives safely. How could anyone orchestrate a murder in a crowded railway carriage without being noticed and with no obvious means of escape?

Kat is on a mission, and the fate of the universe depends on whether or not she succeeds. She must journey into the heart of the underworld and track down Isfet before time runs out. Before the bonding withdrawals claim her bond-mate’s life and her ticket out of the afterlife vanishes. Before the Mother of All attacks. For once, luck is on Kat’s side. Some of her closest friends and most trusted allies have her back, even in the hereafter. But it doesn’t take Kat long to realize that the underworld is far more dangerous than she ever could have imagined....

That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.